"A NOAA Weather Radio with an alarm
and battery back-up is one of the best ways to protect your family
from tornadoes, especially at night when it can wake you up and
alert you to turn to commercial radio and television for more
information," said Dennis McCarthy, meteorologist-in-charge
of the National Weather Service Norman Forecast Office.

When severe weather watches and warnings
are issued, an alarm will sound and the radio will turn itself
on to broadcast the information. With new digital technology
called Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME),
the alarm on a NOAA Weather Radio can be limited to counties
in the immediate area. On Saturday, National Weather Service
staff will provide the special codes needed to do this and instructions
for programming the radio.

According to the National Weather Service,
between 85 to 95 percent of Americans can receive NOAA Weather
Radio broadcasts, however only 5 to 10 percent actually own a
NOAA Weather Radio.

"NOAA Weather Radio saves lives,"
McCarthy said. "We encourage everyone to equip their homes,
schools, businesses and public places with this life-saving device.
We want to make NOAA Weather Radios as common as smoke detectors."

NOAA staff helped program about 250 weather
radios during similar events in the metro area recently.